True Story

The story may be true, but they somehow sucked the excitement out of it. It drags along, seeming to go someplace but ultimately fails to deliver. It spends entirely too much time on the relationship between Michael Finkel and Christian Longo and not enough time on anything interesting, such as the events that occurred or the evasion and capture of a killer. Franco gave a mostly stoic performance. Jonah Hill also showed little range of emotion. Screenplay and direction was not great.

A mediocre-at-best retelling of real events, True Story doesn't offer any insight to make it worth sitting through. The two leading performances almost make it worthwhile. For fans of Hill and Franco it may be worth a rental.

Not completely terrible considering the cast, just boring and pointless.

Interesting start, but ends up being unsatisfying. It's a simple straight narrative storyline with a few gratuitous flashbacks. Franco had some striking moments. *Okay

The Wink: The Movie.

A movie, only possible in the hipster-millennials-James-Franco-day & age: Twists for the sake of the twists! Back flashes for the sake of back flashes - so stupid, wrong that they become unethical! Nothing makes sense in this movie! Every emotion is fake! All constructions implode! They didn't even care if the mobiles were on the market 2002! And shortly before the end: A judge tells me that manipulating (for the sake of manipulating) is bad. Wow, that I call one ignorant bastard of a movie!

Not Capote

*groan* I really would've liked to like this, it has a really nice atmosphere with a lot of underlying suspense and mystery, but that just dissolves like... half throughout the movie. And I know it may be based on a true story (haha) but the whole thing just doesn't go anywhere. They don't spend enough time on Chris Longo (Franco) to get you to like the supposed psychopath or understand the weird attraction between him and Finkel, and the ending is so anti-climatic it literally made me yawn.

Well written and very well acted mystery/crime drama is very engaging while on screen, but fades in retrospect.

Truth is strange new collaboration for James Franco and Jonah Hill. In Franco's case, this macabre project plays right into the label-defying star's ongoing exploration of slippery identities. Even so, one wonders just how eager audiences will be to watch a tony adaptation of ex-New York Times reporter Michael Finkel's self-serving memoir, a conscience-cleanser written to redeem himself after being tarred and feathered for inventing a composite character in a high-profile cover story.

So what?

A litmus test of extreme unpleasantness, and Goold's not a great director--he montages and juxtaposes a lot of stuff just cuz it looks kewl--but Franco delivers a strong performance, and the story's intriguing and bizarre enough to keep you interested throughout. Only at the end do you realize this trip never really took you anywhere, and by then, of course, it's already over.

Chilling - Pathological liar Franco is most convincing and egoist Jonah Hill becomes his final victim

This could-be wicked little cat-and-mouse game falls flat due to tonal missteps and its woeful miscasting of Hill in particular. Not that Christian Longo deserves any better...

This film smugly, condescendingly smiles at you, as you roll your eyes in return

This story probably deserved a better script and director, yet True Story is far from a bad movie. The story is compelling, the acting is overall rather strong and it is indeed somewhat gripping. Decent film.

It's a salient point as we encounter movies like True Story--movies with something to say, but say it in discomforting ways. Some say it's important to engage with such stories, arguing that it's necessary to dig deep into the dark depths to pull out what truth and meaning we can. Others say there's little reason to muddy our minds, insisting that life's too short and too precious a gift to spend our treasured minutes in the mire. (pluggedin.com)

The only reason I watched this was because I was curious about how two buddies who are used to doing silly movies together would approach serious subject matter. There's probably a lot more to glean from the subtext in the original book than this 'filler' of a movie provided.

I actually like Jonah's acting, i think he has alot of talent despite his "rep". The script is just too weak, and the twist wich could have been very well executed is almost made boring.

The acting performances Jonah Hill & James Franco are really good, and is what carries this True Story (2015). For the murder mystery isn't really anything out of the ordinary as far as murder cases goes. Pretty straight forward without any major twists. This one goes more after morals and character of those involved and I guess that's where it hits, which is a little below the belt.

Good, but not an action thriller. Think I was more impressed with Franco and Hill expanding themselves to play a drama instead of their usual adolescent comedies.

Has all the makings of a solid drama-thriller-a stirring psychological premise, striking cinematography, an unsettling stringed soundtrack-but a shoddy script (not helped by Franco's flat performance as the killer in question) continually disappoints with its lifeless dialogue, suspense-less plot (the courtroom climax is anything but), underwhelming pay-off (the stolen identity bit is resolved in one sentence), and surface-y relationships (Finkel and Jill's never warrants Jones' tense looks).

Unfortunately, the well done tone and atmosphere are ruined by a lackluster narrative that is sluggishly ordinary. I've always thought James Franco could be a serial killer.

Maybe the point is we never know who or what to believe. But too many maybes are hell on sustaining tension.

Good acting, well built suspense and pretty decent writing. If only the ending was a bit more rewarding and Jill's "big scene" less silly.

It's true that this has a pretty good story, the most amazing thing was that this was a true crime story that had two comedians in the leads. I thought that Franco did great as the alleged killer and Jonah Hill was great as the disgraced journalist. There is a good amount of tension throughout the movie and it has you throwing out a lot of guesses. I'd really like to read the book that this movie was based on...

#16#, exp2, rw2, story, Felicity.J!/9A5

I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with this one, mostly it's the sluggish pacing and the story (even though real) that goes nowhere. hill can pull off a serious drama but he somehow falters here, although I suspect it's more of a directing problem. may be watchable if you're heavy into true crime, otherwise, pass.

made by kids

good drama

I don't think Franco could be trying any less in this. An easy watch

You've gotta hand it to Rubert Goold and Dave Kajganich. They have managed to water down a compelling story by cramping it into a bonafide 90s thriller format. Borestalgia!

This film suffers from not knowing what it is supposed to be about; Finkels demise or Longo's lies? In the end, the superficial treatment of both areas means we get no satisfaction from this film. After 90 minutes we know nothing about Longo's back story or motives, and we know nothing about Finkel, his motivations for his errors, or indeed his relationship with ... well, is it his wife? There is absolutely no sense of time scale in this film and therefore no sense of drama whatsoever.

I was pretty engaged at the beginning but then the story kind of fell flat. It's hard to make a true story a mystery when it's not really a mystery. All three main characters got an opportunity to have at least one weird scene that was goofy or nonsensical.

A very interesting story told in the most mediocre way.. One of those that makes you sad because of the wasted potential.

Is just a bad movie, very forgettable and I didn't feel connected with any character, they were all shown in a very uninteresting way

This is an interesting drama that is based on true events. The script has some interesting moments and Jonah Hill and James Franco work well together. Overall I would recommend this film.

There's a pretty interesting story here about the relationship between a narcissistic psychopath and the victim but at the same time it's not terribly enthralling either. While Johan Hill is very good as the hapless victim, James Franco's performance is lacking, once again. His presentation never changes when it should. He's always James Franco the actor, never making huge strides to get into character.

For a blockbuster, there is a real effort on the pacing that I can only welcome. As for the treatment of the psychological confrontation between the two characters, I could be charitable if I didn't know the body of work of Hill and Franco. Why was Felicity Jones' character even introduced?